Legends of the 'Frey
by Anguirus111
Summary: Legends can never die. Dorothy 'Ace' McShane knows this and so she recalls the story of Gallifrey, the Time Lords and a legendary Doctor to a passing traveller. But this is no ordinary stranger...


A/N: The Café mentioned in this story is the one from the 1988 7th Doctor serial _Remembrance of the Daleks_. The plot of that story isn't really worth knowing for this.

1972 London: Cafes adorned the various streets as Londonites busied themselves along the streets on their daily routines. One in particular was a joint venture between two owners, Harry and John. Harry had owned the café since the mid 50s and John had been a good friend who had started serving there and was brought on as a partner in 1963 shortly after John's wife had given birth to twins and he couldn't devote as much time to the place as before. In time, John knew he'd be the sole owner of the establishment, now called _Gallifrey's_ based on a suggestion from a recent hire.

But right now neither John nor Harry was behind the counter instead it was the recent hire. Her nametag read Dorothy and her unwritten last name was McShane and right now she was looking at a handful of school kids who were on the other side of the counter. She had only stepped in the back for a moment but when she emerged she noticed that things were amiss on her counter and around the bar.

"Alright, you little troublemakers what did you do this time?" she demanded/pleaded. The kids all shook their heads tight-lipped and the woman sighed.

"Pony up," she relented. The kids all smiled and pulled out a dollar and laid it on the counter and stood back in anticipation.

"You know our price, if anything breaks you pay us each the full amount," the leader reminded her.

"I know," Dorothy sighed as she rubber her nose and looked around the café briefly before a strange man outside briefly caught her eye. He seemed to just be loitering outside in his brown overcoat, and if Dorothy's eyes weren't deceiving her, he also seemed to be keeping her and the children in the corner of his eye with a slightly bemused expression.

But she couldn't focus on him for long as she shot out her hand and she caught a glass before it tipped over and then raced around the bar catching forks, spoons, sugar dispensers and more that had been perched precariously on the counter. Although it may have seemed like she was reacting to each item about to tip over, to a really discerning eye it almost seemed like she _knew_ when and where each object was going to fall, as if she could see the future. But then the moment was over and she had captured every object the children had set up to fall.

"Aw, man," they complained disappointed as Dorothy smiled as she collected their money and put it in the register.

"Better luck next time ladies and gents," she said, pleased with yet another chance at outwitting them. "Now you'd better get home, it's getting late."

"But-!" the children expectantly protested. Dorothy pointed to the door.

"Now," she insisted calmly. The children glumly nodded their heads and made their way towards the exit and were on their way out when their leader stopped briefly and looked back at the counter as if he'd forgotten something before shrugging it off and leaving…as the man in the brown coat and mussed up brown hair entered the café and made his way to where they had been. Dorothy was surprised he'd come in and slightly suspicious that it'd been after her little stunt, but she wouldn't rush judgment until she knew all the facts.

"Hello," the man offered amicably of Dorothy as she was cleaning out a glass and he took a stool. Well he seemed nice at any rate…

"What'll it be stranger?" she asked while imitating a southern United States drawl. The man briefly chuckled and leaned both his arms on the table as he weighed his options.

"Tea please," he responded with a mild smile as he looked around the place. "Where're Harry and John?"

That surprised her.

"Not in today," she responded as she prepared his order. "Been here before?"

The man continued looking around as if to provide himself a distraction from responding right away.

"A few years back, yes," he finally acknowledged as he returned his attention to her. "I had a nice conversation with John a few years back that I thought would be fun to revisit."

"I doubt he'd remember a conversation," Dorothy brought up. "Unless…"

The man perked up at this. "Unless what?" he inquired hopeful.

Dorothy shook her head. "Never mind, forget it," she continued as she continued washing the glass. John had, had an interesting conversation once with a shorter man in a white outfit about sugar that involved a coin he had obsessed over for awhile, but that was a long time ago.

"It's just as well," the man said a little disappointed before changing gears. "Anyway, that was a neat trick you pulled with those kids, but don't you feel guilty about stealing their money?"

That statement nearly caused Dorothy to drop her glass but she held onto it and pretended not to have adversely reacted to that statement.

"I don't really steal it, I put it on their tab," Dorothy continued as she set the glass on a shelf above her. "It's been okayed by their parents if you're curious."

The man nodded and waved his hand to ward her concerns off because he didn't care.

"I'm not a PI or the police or anything," he offered jovially. "I'm just passing through and this place caught my eye and you're trick as well but I'm just trying to make conversation waiting for my tea. Maybe we got off on the wrong foot, I'm John."

The man held out his hand invitingly as Dorothy couldn't figure out whether to take it before deciding to go with her gut and take the man at his word. If things went wrong, she'd know beforehand.

"Dorothy," she revealed as she shook his hand. The man nodded before turning contemplative.

"I don't mean to offend, but you don't strike me as a Dorothy," John contemplated before he let her hand go. "But who am I to complain, I don't exactly look like a John either... But I do want to know what Gallifrey is."

This man was beginning to remind Dorothy of an absent minded man from her past but she didn't comment on it to further confuse him and throw a further tangent on things.

"Why do you want to know about Gallifrey?" asked Dorothy as she began wiping up the countertop as the day was slowly starting to wind down. It was hardly an out of the ordinary for some to ask about the name but she wanted to know all the same.

"I think I've been there once," the man admitted to offhand as Dorothy nearly shoved a nearby glass off the counter in shock. John looked at her surprised as Dorothy stared right back at him.

"You've been to Gallifrey?" she stated extremely doubtful. The man now looked at her confused.

"Yes…," he began uncertainly. "Isn't it in Ireland, our neighbors to the north?"

Dorothy tried to hold back a laugh and failed miserably as she laughed hysterically at that statement as the man's jaw dropped.

"That wasn't funny," he said feigning being glum. Dorothy slowly stopped laughing and instead just had a big grin on her face.

"Sorry," she said after another brief laugh. "Gallifrey is a place that existed in the distant past during the days of yore where they were knights and dragons."

"Oh," said the man a little embarrassed. "Well that sound slightly better, tell me more about it."

"Gallifrey was a city in the land of Kasterborous where the trees were silver, mountains were everywhere and the sky was red. It was the home of a mighty and noble people who called themselves…," she began nostalgically.

"Gallifreyans?" the man asked hopeful. Dorothy shook her head.

"No, they were called Time Lords," she continued. "They were a peaceful race who timelessly watched over the lands around them and the outside people came to revere them as a result."

"Sounds wonderful," the man said, already entranced with her tale. Dorothy's expression turned melancholy as her smile slowly turned downward and she looked at the counter she was leaning on and saw her own reflection on it.

"I wish it were," she revealed. "But over time this race got arrogant and felt that the problems of the peasantry in the lands around them were not their concern. So they watched and watched and watched as the people faced all sorts of calamities and cried out for a savior."

The man's expression also turned sad. "And did one ever show up?"

Dorothy's expression brightened at that as she nodded her head. "Yes, one did. He wasn't born a hero, he had no greater calling to action, no destiny to fulfill, but he knew what the right thing to do was. This man was expelled from Gallifrey though he was perfectly content to leave, having grown disgusted of his race's impassiveness. Everywhere he went, he invariably attracted trouble but he never ran away, he could take it and deal with it and make everything end well for all involved."

"I doubt it was that easy," the man brought up. "Life is never that simple."

Dorothy briefly shook her head in agreement before looking up with a fire in her eyes. "Yes, he lost people and he suffered heartache and died several times over, but he endured when anyone else would have failed. But the one thing he could never do was go home, not permanently at least."

"He couldn't?" the man asked perplexed. "Why not, what happened to Gallifrey?"

Dorothy slammed her hand down on the counter startling the man but no one else as the café was empty save for her and him. Evidently Dorothy was so engrossed in her tale she didn't realize she'd done it.

"Because the Time Lords were fools," she declared bitterly. "One of their enemies was drawing plans against them and though this enemy did briefly prompt them to lash out, they refused to finish the job and so the enemy destroyed their land, their city and eventually their main citadel."

The other man could say nothing, just also sit in a similar pose to Dorothy by staring at the counter.

"This man whom they had expelled had of course returned to fight by his people against this enemy, an enemy he had fought many times before on his own, but when the citadel fell even he didn't know what to do," the waitress continued. "But in his moment of despair, he concocted an idea so terrible that even he hesitated to go through with it. But with no options left, this man of impossible courage did what was necessary and he ended it all and took Gallifrey and the enemy with him and his people."

Dorothy threw her rag off the table in disgust at the whole tale.

"What happened to our hero?" the man asked softly. Dorothy stood up and briefly cracked her neck. "Did he die?"

Dorothy shook her head. "No, he lived, I know that in my heart. But what became of him after that, even I don't know."

The man sat up as well and steepled his hands in front of his face.

"How do you know all of this?" he needed to know. Dorothy turned away from him in shame and began sorting the things in front of her for a distraction.

"Because one of the 'acquaintances' of our hero was a peasant girl named Ace," she revealed. "She was a lost soul before he found her, an anarchist who had a penchant for causing trouble. But our hero saw something in her that even she couldn't see and he took it upon himself to educate her in what it really meant to make a difference in people's lives. They did for a time, helping people, righting wrongs, saving the world.

And during that time, the little girl slowly grew into a woman and stopped being his student but became his daughter. But the man had to move on, he was a nomad at heart, and so he put her up at the Gallifreyan Academy for Time Lords at great risk to himself. There she learned and studied and even ceased being a peasant and become a Time Lord of sorts herself. But she was denied from fighting in the war by the very person who had put her there in the first place. He took her far away where the enemy couldn't find her and despite her protests, he left without saying goodbye and she never saw him again," Ace finished before something occurred to her. "Sorry, that didn't answer your question did it?"

"Actually it did," the man responded to her back as she hadn't turned back around, instead she decided to scrub some dishes extra hard in frustration.

"One last question," the individual asked. "What was this man's name?"

"Doctor," she said, barely audible. "He was the Doctor and I would give anything to see him again."

The two sat there in silence when one final glass that had been positioned on the top shelf and tampered with by the children fell. Dorothy's head snapped up but there was nothing she could do about it as the glass barreled towards her head when the man behind the counter shot up and snatched the glass out of midair before it hit her. The waitress spun around and stared at the man in his brown coat who was regarding the glass carefully.

"You missed one," he offered half-heartedly as he returned the glass to her. Dorothy couldn't speak, only one thought that she prayed for so much echoed in her head as tears threatened to form in her eyes. But the man sat back down in silence as tears stung Dorothy's eyes as she returned to her work. Behind her the man sat in his own thoughts as tears threatened to stain his eyes before he looked up at her with a sad smile on his face.

"T-there are worlds out there where the sky is burning," he stuttered. Dorothy looked up at her reflection in the mirror in front of her as tears flowed down her eyes.

"And the sea's asleep," she continued crying.

"And the river's dream," the man put forth.

"People made of smoke and cities made of song,"

"Somewhere there's danger,"

"Somewhere there's injustice," said Dorothy turning around to face the man with her hand over her mouth.

"And here a tea is getting cold," the man pointed out poignantly at the tea Dorothy had forgotten in the midst of her tale. "Come on Ace…"

"We've got work to do," she tearfully stated as she reached across the counter and grabbed a hold of the man and squeezed him tightly to her body as she cried heavily into his shoulder. The man said nothing but stroked her hair to soothe her.

"I've missed you, father," she said, still in his shoulder. The man, the Doctor, nodded.

"And I've missed you too Ace, more than you realize," he acknowledged as she stood back up and wiped away her tears.

"What are you doing here?" Ace asked. "I…I…"

The Doctor smiled. "I've had work to do, but we all have to make time for what's really important."

Ace nodded and slowly gathered her things as her replacement, John, showed up to run the usual graveyard shift. She looked at the Doctor as a sly smile crossed his face for reasons she couldn't fathom.

"Hello Dorothy everything work out alright?" he asked. Ace nodded and finished wiping away her tears and gave a big and bright smile as she poured down the tea and joined the Doctor on the other side of the counter.

"Here John, Ace was very nice to me and wouldn't accept my tip so please accept it on my behalf," the Doctor offered as he rummaged in his pocket for some change for his tea. John gave Ace a befuddled look who merely nodded her head and John accepted the coin as the Doctor headed for the door. The part-owner looked at the coin before doing a double take and reading the date stamped on it.

"2009?" he asked at a loss before looking up at the man who was almost out the door.

"I should've taken that sugar after all," he offered a knowing grin and was gone leaving John in a stunned stupor.

Outside: "What was that all about?" Ace asked curious as the two walked down the road.

"Oh, we just had a long conversation during that Dalek invasion of '63 that helped me resolve some issues I'd been having at the time," the Doctor responded as he threw his hands into his coat pockets. "So what have you been up to this whole time? When I first met you were a waitress and now we meet up again and you're _still_ a waitress."

Ace laughed at that. "Yes, but at least I'm not still stuck on Ice World."

The Doctor nodded. "Thank goodness for that. But what are you doing here in this time period?"

Ace shrugged. "I needed some spending money and this was one of the few places I knew they'd hire me with no questions asked."

The Doctor nodded as they walked down an alleyway with a police box at the far end.

"Doctor, you don't know a Jack Harkness do you?" Ace asked curious. The Doctor stopped in his tracks.

"How do you know him?" he demanded to Ace as she looked at him at a loss.

"He stopped by one day," Ace responded. "Guess he picked up the chrono signature from my watch. Anyway, he asked about you to which I denied everything and then he left. But something about him really threw me off. Any idea why?"

The Doctor laughed as he continued towards the TARDIS. "It's just part you picking up Time Lord essence. He was a fixed point in time and now I have trouble around him also. I wouldn't worry about it, he'll never find me for a few decades now."

Ace nodded as the two entered into the TARDIS as the Doctor asked. "So how long as it been since I've seen you?"

"Seventy-five, eighty years," Ace commented offhand as the Doctor was again taken by surprise.

"But you don't look…," he began as Ace laughed.

"Part of being a Time Lord," she responded. "Or whatever it is I am because I'm not quite sure. I still have one heart but I've lived for quite a few years now."

"You're unique is what you are," the Doctor pointed out. "You're like me, more than just a Time Lord."

"But…you're not still half-human are you after that weirdness when your regeneration into your eighth self went awry?" asked Ace as she sat down on the chair next to the console. That'd been an odd reunion expecting his seventh self to arrive at her graduation from the academy and get a flighty eighth version instead with a recurring case of amnesia.

"Ha, ha, no I'm all Time Lord now," the Doctor said hitting his chest proudly. "Of course I'm 10 now, not 9."

"Ouch," said Ace cringing briefly. "Have you thought what'll happen when…"

The Doctor waved off that question. "I don't care about the end of the road, only the journey in getting there. So do you mind if I take you home?"

Ace nodded and stood up. "Only if I can drive."

"WHAT?!" the Doctor shouted upset that startled her. "What's wrong with my driving?"

Ace didn't have to think about that for very long. "Remember when you dropped me off that one time for my friend's 21st birthday?"

"Yes…," began the Doctor hesitantly before adding boisterously. "What, did I drop you off on the wrong street?"

"No," began Ace as the Doctor nodded in recognition of that fact. "You dropped me off on Alpha Centauri!"

The Doctor's eyes bugged out at that. "I did not!" he responded sheepishly. Ace shook her head in shame.

"Long story short I had to hitch a ride home and that wasn't fun and I have no intention of repeating it," she declared and began pressing buttons as the Doctor rushed to stop her.

"Now, you be a good child and stop messing with your parent's property!" he ordered and soon both were fending each other off as they each began pressing various buttons and flipping various switches as the TARDIS dematerialized from sight.

2271: The TARDIS rematerialized with a shudder and the door opened and Ace stepped out in her old letterman jacket that she used to wear when she traveled with the Doctor.

"Ha!" she declared triumphantly at their surroundings as the Doctor crossed his arms.

"Hmmph!" was his begrudging response. "I could've gotten us here faster!"

Ace laughed at that and soon both were walking down the futuristic London streets as they had a couple centuries prior.

"Interesting time period you picked to live in," the Doctor observed. Ace nodded.

"Yeah, it's alright though I do tend to move a lot," she remarked. "I must have picked that up from you."

"You can't move forward when you're standing still," the Doctor quoted as they went down several automated walkways until final reaching Ace's flat.

"Nice place," the Time Lord commented as they entered and looked around. "How do you pay for it? I can't imagine your 1972 salary covers inflation this far in advance."

Ace nodded as she sat down at a computer console with a pneumatic tube near it and answered cryptically. "No it doesn't and yet yes it does."

She typed some commands into her computer as an image of an elderly professor appeared.

"Greetings Ace what have you got for me this time?" the professor inquired. Ace held up an envelope that contained her earnings for the past two weeks.

"Same as usual," she remarked as she put the money into the pneumatic tube and it instantly found its way to the professor who whistled as he looked through it.

"I am impressed, this money is in incredible condition," the man said in awe. "Where do you come up with this stuff?"

Ace laughed to herself. "No comment, you know my fee."

The professor nodded and pressed a button as a cash card shot out of Ace's computer. "Until next time."

Ace tipped her head at him and shut off the screen and turned around, card in hand.

"So what do you think?" she asked holding up the card between her pointer finger and middle finger. The Doctor regarded the card silently.

"I'm so disappointed, using time travel for your own gain how could you?" he responded hurtful. Ace just looked at him unimpressed.

"And who do you think I learned this from?" she asked pointedly. The Doctor looked up at that in realization. "Besides, it's just rewards for work done."

"Well don't follow my bad examples any more," the Doctor remarked snootily as Ace laughed.

"Well there is one bad habit I failed to pick up from you," she added cheekily as she headed for the kitchen for some food.

"Yeah?" asked the Time Lord hopping up onto one of the stools there as she got some milk.

"Yeah," Ace acknowledged. "Whatever spectacular behavior landed those _amazing_ scores at the Academy."

"Uhhh," said the Doctor at a complete loss at this turn of events, it reminded him of someone he'd had a conversation awhile back with someone else. "Wait, how did you know what those scores? They're confidential!"

Ace poured herself some milk and put it back in her refrigerator and thought back to those days.

"Well you remember that Romaine-a lady you kept telling me about?" Ace asked. The Doctor squinted his eyes.

"Romaine-a…oh you mean Romana!" he realized. "Yeah, what about her?"

Ace sat down with her milk and took out a cookie and bit down on it. "Well she didn't take too kindly to me calling her that. She gave me a bad mark and said if I ever called her that again she'd have had me expelled. And this was the first day of school!"

The Doctor leaned forward as he thought about it curiously and somewhat amused at her response.

"Well didn't you try and also call her Fred like I suggested," he asked. Ace shook her head.

"I wasn't about to risk it," she said frankly. The Doctor nodded in agreement.

"But how does that explain the scores?" the Time Lord asked uncertain. Ace leaned back in her stool.

"Well once she figured out who sponsored my entrance to the Academy…," she began and trailed.

"Ah,"

The sound of a door opening abruptly ended their conversation as three females around Ace's age entered.

"Hey Ace," they all answered as they set down the shopping bags they'd been carrying on the couch. "Who's this?"

"Elisabeth, Stephanie, Sarah, this is my deadbeat parent I've been telling about for awhile now," said Ace proudly as the Doctor groaned once more. The three advanced on the kitchen.

"Wow so you're the legendary Doctor she always talks about," said Stephanie. "You're younger than I expected."

"Well…appearances can be deceiving," was all the Doctor would admit to as he stood up. "And I'm not getting any younger so I've got to be taking off."

The three looked at him perplexed by his sudden desire to shove off.

"Universe to save and all that," he added as the others nodded knowingly.

"Guess that explains where Ace gets her 'I have to help everyone I meet' behavior," they responded before heading off and leaving the two alone. The Doctor for his part snapped his fingers and the TARDIS materialized next to him. Ace followed him to the device and the Doctor stopped by the doors.

"Don't be a stranger," Ace requested. The Doctor gave her a melancholic smile.

"I'll try not to," the Doctor promised before he reached into his coat for a strange contraption made out of spare parts. "Oh and this might help you with you that little investigation of yours with those Zygons. It'll tell you when one of them is concealed as a human or other being."

"Thanks," said Ace grateful as she took the device. "But how did…"

The Doctor gave her a genuine smile now. "Just because I'm not around doesn't mean I'm not keeping an eye out for you. Just don't try to see if you can regenerate."

"I've got a partner, she'll keep us both out of trouble," Ace revealed. "Like you, I can't travel without companions."

"A chip of the ol' block," said the Doctor proudly. He gave her a brief squeeze and entered into the device and with that he was gone.

And then Ace's door slammed open and a blonde-haired blue-eyed woman entered into the room nearly out of breath.

"They're on the move, let's go! Those Zygons won't know what hit them!" shouted the woman excitedly. Ace shook her head, laughed and grabbed her coat.

"C'mon, Jenny, let's get this over and done with," she ordered and the two ran out the Doctor's daughters ran out the door.


End file.
